TR Foreign Policy & Geopolitics

[GoatsMilk]

You can go and fight there then Palestine isn't our problem and turkish army isn't your toy zafer.

they wont do that, no chance.

 

[Nilgiri]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1719018383600181606

 

[Maximilien Robespierre]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1719018383600181606

I hope to see more cooperation between India and Turkiye, We shouldn't dictate our foreign relations because what pakistan thinks or does.

I think India is a better contender to be our ally both countries have good Defence Industry that could cooperate.

 

[Barry]

Ideally you'd be friends with both and use that friendship to build bridges between both of those nations and mend any enmity between them. Easier said than done but it shouldn't have to be an either/or situation when it comes to foreign policy regarding 2 important nations who share a border.

 

[Kartal1]

US official: "The United Arab Emirates has announced its intention to join an international coalition with the United States to damage Hezbollah if it intervenes in the war and expands the conflict in the region." -Reuters

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1720560363547029651

 

[Afif]

The land, the people will outlast them. The greatest day for the Middle East is not when the Palestinian conflict is solved, but when these monarchies are destroyed and democracy prevails.

 

[Rooxbar]

Ideally you'd be friends with both and use that friendship to build bridges between both of those nations and mend any enmity between them. Easier said than done but it shouldn't have to be an either/or situation when it comes to foreign policy regarding 2 important nations who share a border.

You know what is never a conversation? One of the crucial factors which can help us achieve this difficult goal is a group of elite analysts in both Academia and state apparatus, esp. in the diplomatic bureaucratic structure, who know Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, know Indian culture, have a good understanding of Hinduism, are intimately familiar with India's history, esp. it's contemporary political history and environment, etc. And you send these people to engage with India. They have their own little think tank or institute, publish their studies and come up with long-term plans of engagement. One cannot even start to imagine the differences this would make when you have a fluent Hindi speaker familiar with inside jokes, culture, etc. talking with Indian officials and compare this to the interactions that a conversation through patchy translation will be like with no understanding of the opposing sides' biases, worldview, etc. in a manner conducive to a milieu of misunderstandings. This arrangement should exist for all major countries on earth and all neighbors. It would employ at most like 1000 people and would be a very small burden on the budget. But what we have instead is SETA and Menzil tarikatı getting billions of dollars worth of government contracts.

 

[Nilgiri]

You know what is never a conversation? One of the crucial factors which can help us achieve this difficult goal is a group of elite analysts in both Academia and state apparatus, esp. in the diplomatic bureaucratic structure, who know Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, know Indian culture, have a good understanding of Hinduism, are intimately familiar with India's history, esp. it's contemporary political history and environment, etc. And you send these people to engage with India. They have their own little think tank or institute, publish their studies and come up with long-term plans of engagement. One cannot even start to imagine the differences this would make when you have a fluent Hindi speaker familiar with inside jokes, culture, etc. talking with Indian officials and compare this to the interactions that a conversation through patchy translation will be like with no understanding of the opposing sides' biases, worldview, etc. in a manner conducive to a milieu of misunderstandings. This arrangement should exist for all major countries on earth and all neighbors. It would employ at most like 1000 people and would be a very small burden on the budget. But what we have instead is SETA and Menzil tarikatı getting billions of dollars worth of government contracts.

A very good fair-minded approach I agree with. Cultivating a corps of "Indophile" professionals in Turkiye's intelligentsia and honing the best of them within foreign service as their careers etc.

This approach should be done with any large significant country for Turkiye (India, China are just very large countries so appropriate focus given to both on this concept you explain). The more done in upstream on the "easy obvious enriching things", the better the rewards for mutual benefit in the downstream....as a lot of people remember things and it has impact and positive cascade on various actions and decisions taken by larger amount of people (if you study time frame of soft power in past between civilisations and countries).

Actually the current ambassador (Firat Sunel) is quite illustrative of this as he has studied India quite a lot (from the exchanges he has regularly with Indian history authors, cultural groups, prominent journalists/commentators, business leaders and so on). So that is very close to 10/10 selection done here by Erdogan admin under the circumstances.

If Turkiye increases this approach, it will pay rich rewards later. i.e so much more can be done and it shows up with increasing frequency too with Turkish travel vloggers like Yirtik Pantolon etc who give a good honest impression of India (its good and bad) in quite deep visits to many parts of the country.

Looking back I can chart my own impression over time that Turkiye has made (on soft power scope) from younger age to now and the importance that has in me being quite resistant to lot of unfair anti-Turkish sentiment and propaganda that is spread around by those that mean ill towards Turkiye and its people....either by deep misunderstanding or nefarious deliberateness.

It was American humanities professor in school that was my first real introduction to a Turcophile (he really got into detailed explanation of Turkiye at times, how different it was, his many visits etc and was very fond over the country). Then I developed good rapport with Turkish friend at school too.

In later academia, I am highly thankful to a Turkish professor here in Canada who shaped a good portion of what I know and talk about in engineering etc with you all.

Likewise, Chess is also a great pursuit of mine and I have had long conversations with Turkish Chess grandmaster whom I developed a good rapport with for quite a few years when we followed a lot of same tournaments and I impressed him with my knowledge of Turkiye past that....and he returned the favour by improving my chess to a higher level by showing some key insights into certain things.

Then finally lot of the online forum Turkish friends (incl this forum) I have gathered over time in this new "social media" era that fill in lot of finer details and add a further Turkish perspective and sharing deeper knowledge of things I didn't know etc....in addition to Turkish friends I made in real world setting too.

These all mean when I come across mean-spirited, patently untrue or anti-Turkish sentiment, I am extremely resistant towards it and am able to challenge and confront it if I see fit to correct another over such things (or at least open other side of story for such people to read).

Greater understanding and opportunity happens when more of this happens between countries, early and consistently over time, it creates a good virtuous feedback that will ultimately help solve lot of humanity deepest problems too (given misunderstanding, ignorance and fear creates lot of unncessary hate and strife).

A fair minded, balanced and intelligent Turk is one of the best treasures in life to have....as they are in a very sweetspot of intersection of context, history, culture. They have good virtuous psyche of courage, loyalty and wisdom in the unique way this has distilled in the Turkish context.

This is why a commited diplomatic corps approach to foreign entities, especially commensurate to their size is a very sound approach as this can set the ball rolling in likelihood of positive impacts happening with more frequency.

 

[Kartal1]

You know what is never a conversation? One of the crucial factors which can help us achieve this difficult goal is a group of elite analysts in both Academia and state apparatus, esp. in the diplomatic bureaucratic structure, who know Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, know Indian culture, have a good understanding of Hinduism, are intimately familiar with India's history, esp. it's contemporary political history and environment, etc. And you send these people to engage with India. They have their own little think tank or institute, publish their studies and come up with long-term plans of engagement. One cannot even start to imagine the differences this would make when you have a fluent Hindi speaker familiar with inside jokes, culture, etc. talking with Indian officials and compare this to the interactions that a conversation through patchy translation will be like with no understanding of the opposing sides' biases, worldview, etc. in a manner conducive to a milieu of misunderstandings. This arrangement should exist for all major countries on earth and all neighbors. It would employ at most like 1000 people and would be a very small burden on the budget. But what we have instead is SETA and Menzil tarikatı getting billions of dollars worth of government contracts.

A very good proposal! We all see the result of the "0 problem" foreign policy from the past. While the Turkish foreign politics have its highs it also haves many low points. When we talk about official initiatives I think the closest that Turkiye did abroad to what you said was the diplomatic expansion in Africa and the wider introduction to African culture trough foreign African students studying in Turkiye.

Many Turks have wrong impressions about foreigners as a whole due to conservatism and stereotypes that were formed in different times under different circumstances. Due to not so easily accessible information on that matter, especially the older generation has a lot of wrong stereotypes regarding many nationalities. The Turks are very hospitable people but many of the Turks are too closed minded to interaction with foreigners let alone concentrating over a whole nationality or ethnic group, study its language, culture, traditions or general view to the world. While I fully understand why words like "The only friend of a Turk is another Turk" exist I don't think many understand the deep meaning of that. I think this is wrong.

I am supporting 100% your idea. I think that a good diplomat is a man who knows well the other side, its pluses, its minuses, know very well what Turkiye is lacking and what could be taken as a positive thing to be introduced to Turks so Turkish culture and even the level of civilization becomes even higher. He knows the tools that he should use in order to achieve his objectives based on different factors within the side he is interacting with. This for sure will richen the minds of the next generations which will help do everything even better from the big things to the casual everyday life for every Turk. Such initiatives will help the future generations of diplomats to know even better "the outer world" and using specific approaches to different groups so they can work on forming even deeper relations based on mutual interests. It will help not only richening the Turkish Nation but also can vastly help intelligence services and strategic planning as well. As we are going to multipolar world order where the importance of regional powers will be even higher I think we should up our diplomacy game and start developing deeper relations with the help of this kind of organizations with government support or in the form of NGO's working on these matters in close cooperation with the State institutions.

I dream for seeing less conservative young generations towards foreigners, better educated regarding different cultures and traditions, more broad-minded people ready to introduce innovations on the basis of richening the Turkish way of life and government that would support such projects.

Thank you for the post!

 

[Bozan]

You know what is never a conversation? One of the crucial factors which can help us achieve this difficult goal is a group of elite analysts in both Academia and state apparatus, esp. in the diplomatic bureaucratic structure, who know Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, know Indian culture, have a good understanding of Hinduism, are intimately familiar with India's history, esp. it's contemporary political history and environment, etc. And you send these people to engage with India. They have their own little think tank or institute, publish their studies and come up with long-term plans of engagement. One cannot even start to imagine the differences this would make when you have a fluent Hindi speaker familiar with inside jokes, culture, etc. talking with Indian officials and compare this to the interactions that a conversation through patchy translation will be like with no understanding of the opposing sides' biases, worldview, etc. in a manner conducive to a milieu of misunderstandings. This arrangement should exist for all major countries on earth and all neighbors. It would employ at most like 1000 people and would be a very small burden on the budget. But what we have instead is SETA and Menzil tarikatı getting billions of dollars worth of government contracts.

Lol SETA, I remember one of their analysts spent a year on a report on SNA, published it only for social media to tear it apart for showing high rates of child recruitment. Shortly afterwards the USA put TR on the list for child recruitment. This was the first time a NATO country was on this list.

The analyst Ömer deleted the report and was promoted.

Murat Yetkin: ABD’nin Türkiye’ye “çocuk asker” suçlaması altından, AK Parti çizgisindeki düşünce kuruluşu SETA çıkabilir

Murat Yetkin: ABD’nin Türkiye’ye “çocuk asker” suçlaması altından, AK Parti çizgisindeki düşünce kuruluşu SETA çıkabilir

t24.com.tr

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1411926814327554049

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1411053219091030019

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1410884844779982853

 

[Bozan]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1720842215684030530

Turkmen officials I spoke to in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq say that there are between 300,000 and 400,000 Turkmens living in Erbil alone. According to some, this figure is close to 100 thousand.

However, in the 2018 elections in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, even the total vote rate of the 5 quotas reserved for Turkmens is less than 9 thousand. (Photo)

Turkmens, who were elected as ministers and parliament secretaries with a few thousand votes, may not be able to win even a single seat with their performances if they enter the elections outside the quota.

Moreover, considering that the KDP intervened in the Turkmen quotas and made the candidate in Erbil vote for the candidate from Duhok or the Peshmerga in order to get the candidate close to it elected, less than 9 thousand votes that went to these Turkmen quotas are not even Turkmen.

Huge difference to Kirkuk. I wonder why the foreign policy is so different between the two regions

 

[Afif]

Turkey recalls ambassador to Israel over ‘humanitarian tragedy in Gaza’​

President Erdogan says he is breaking contact with PM Netanyahu but is not cutting relations with Israel over Gaza.

Turkey recalls ambassador to Israel over ‘humanitarian tragedy in Gaza’

President Erdogan says he is breaking contact with PM Netanyahu but is not cutting relations with Israel over Gaza.

www.aljazeera.com

 

[Mis_TR_Like]

I'm starting to think that Hamas's attack on Israel was an Iranian plot to break the Israeli-Turkic shadow alliance.

Let's face it, Hamas would've known that this would be suicide. I'm sure that whoever ordered the October 7 attacks was far and away from Gaza and the West Bank.

I'm sure that the Palestinians knew damn well that the Israeli response would be horrid.

If you remember a month ago, just before the violence started, everyone was talking about Israeli support of Azerbaijan and the possibility of the creation of a Turkic corridor. Iran was going crazy, not only threatening Azerbaijan, but also Israel. Straight after the fighting began, the IRGC made a direct threat to Azerbaijan saying something along the lines of "your Zionist dogs can no longer protect you".

Meanwhile, Iran has a lot of Kurdish Islamist supporters in Türkiye which it is using to create tension and hatred.

The USA doesn't mind this at all, as they see Iran as a counterbalance to the Türkiye and the main blockage for a united Turkic world. In fact I'd wager that the US knew an attack was imminent, and allowed it to happen in order to break the ties between TR and IL.

Remember that Iran and the USA probably fear a united Turkic world more than Russia or China do. Why? Russia has already given up on that front, its main focus is on confronting the west. It will give away its power to the Turkic world knowingly, it's a necessary sacrifice for them. Meanwhile, China is separated from the bulk of the Turkic World by a massive mountain range. It also has no interest in being the world police.

Iran knows that a united Turkic world means a divided Iran. Meanwhile, the USA sees a united Turkic World as a direct competitor to US hegemony. Not only would it be a military powerhouse which would fight with unrivaled ferocity, but it would also have massive influence in Eastern Europe. Furthermore, it would lead a new civilization which could outpace the current western/US one in all fields. The thing which scares them the most about this is that we are essentially talking about a new Turkic-led Eurasian bloc which could not only have influence throughout Asia and the Middle East, but also Europe.

 

[Ryder]

that's pure imperialisms. now that the din qardaşlar turns out to be too much traitor to be redeem, you turn to imperialisms to save them ?? and no we dont want that you want that , like i said before buy a ticket to Egypt smuggle yourself to gaza why you are still here go rule your backyard from there not from turkey

Nothing wrong with imperialism.

Our ancestors were imperialists so what.

Difference between us Turks and Europeans we did not exploit anybody.

We just loved conquering and ruling.

 

[Afif]

I'm starting to think that Hamas's attack on Israel was an Iranian plot to break the Israeli-Turkic shadow alliance.

Let's face it, Hamas would've known that this would be suicide. I'm sure that whoever ordered the October 7 attacks was far and away from Gaza and the West Bank.

I'm sure that the Palestinians knew damn well that the Israeli response would be horrid.

If you remember a month ago, just before the violence started, everyone was talking about Israeli support of Azerbaijan and the possibility of the creation of a Turkic corridor. Iran was going crazy, not only threatening Azerbaijan, but also Israel. Straight after the fighting began, the IRGC made a direct threat to Azerbaijan saying something along the lines of "your Zionist dogs can no longer protect you".

I am confident that this is not the case.
I have been follwing Palestinian conflict long enough to know that. Hamas their own reasons for the conflict. They really do.

The USA doesn't mind this at all, as they see Iran as a counterbalance to the Türkiye and the main blockage for a united Turkic world. In fact I'd wager that the US knew an attack was imminent, and allowed it to happen in order to break the ties between TR and IL.

Remember that Iran and the USA probably fear a united Turkic world more than Russia or China do. Why? Russia has already given up on that front, its main focus is on confronting the west. It will give away its power to the Turkic world knowingly, it's a necessary sacrifice for them. Meanwhile, China is separated from the bulk of the Turkic World by a massive mountain range. It also has no interest in being the world police.

Iran knows that a united Turkic world means a divided Iran. Meanwhile, the USA sees a united Turkic World as a direct competitor to US hegemony. Not only would it be a military powerhouse which would fight with unrivaled ferocity, but it would also have massive influence in Eastern Europe. Furthermore, it would lead a new civilization which could outpace the current western/US one in all fields. The thing which scares them the most about this is that we are essentially talking about a new Turkic-led Eurasian bloc which could not only have influence throughout Asia and the Middle East, but also Europe.

While a united Turkic is a great idea, it is not a direct competitor for the USA.

If we add the other Turkic countries, will the total size of combined economy pass $2 trillions?
US economy is $26 trillions.

IMO, it really seems unrealistic. Or at least it will take a long time. (I won't be alive by then)

 

[Ryder]

I'm starting to think that Hamas's attack on Israel was an Iranian plot to break the Israeli-Turkic shadow alliance.

Let's face it, Hamas would've known that this would be suicide. I'm sure that whoever ordered the October 7 attacks was far and away from Gaza and the West Bank.

I'm sure that the Palestinians knew damn well that the Israeli response would be horrid.

If you remember a month ago, just before the violence started, everyone was talking about Israeli support of Azerbaijan and the possibility of the creation of a Turkic corridor. Iran was going crazy, not only threatening Azerbaijan, but also Israel. Straight after the fighting began, the IRGC made a direct threat to Azerbaijan saying something along the lines of "your Zionist dogs can no longer protect you".

Meanwhile, Iran has a lot of Kurdish Islamist supporters in Türkiye which it is using to create tension and hatred.

The USA doesn't mind this at all, as they see Iran as a counterbalance to the Türkiye and the main blockage for a united Turkic world. In fact I'd wager that the US knew an attack was imminent, and allowed it to happen in order to break the ties between TR and IL.

Remember that Iran and the USA probably fear a united Turkic world more than Russia or China do. Why? Russia has already given up on that front, its main focus is on confronting the west. It will give away its power to the Turkic world knowingly, it's a necessary sacrifice for them. Meanwhile, China is separated from the bulk of the Turkic World by a massive mountain range. It also has no interest in being the world police.

Iran knows that a united Turkic world means a divided Iran. Meanwhile, the USA sees a united Turkic World as a direct competitor to US hegemony. Not only would it be a military powerhouse which would fight with unrivaled ferocity, but it would also have massive influence in Eastern Europe. Furthermore, it would lead a new civilization which could outpace the current western/US one in all fields. The thing which scares them the most about this is that we are essentially talking about a new Turkic-led Eurasian bloc which could not only have influence throughout Asia and the Middle East, but also Europe.

Usa is more involved in the Middle East thanks to both Israel and Saudi Arabia.

They constantly invite the USA into the region to bail out their asses.

 

[TR_123456]

You know what is never a conversation? One of the crucial factors which can help us achieve this difficult goal is a group of elite analysts in both Academia and state apparatus, esp. in the diplomatic bureaucratic structure, who know Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, know Indian culture, have a good understanding of Hinduism, are intimately familiar with India's history, esp. it's contemporary political history and environment, etc. And you send these people to engage with India. They have their own little think tank or institute, publish their studies and come up with long-term plans of engagement. One cannot even start to imagine the differences this would make when you have a fluent Hindi speaker familiar with inside jokes, culture, etc. talking with Indian officials and compare this to the interactions that a conversation through patchy translation will be like with no understanding of the opposing sides' biases, worldview, etc. in a manner conducive to a milieu of misunderstandings. This arrangement should exist for all major countries on earth and all neighbors. It would employ at most like 1000 people and would be a very small burden on the budget.

Isnt this the way its done by all major countries?
Why should our country be different?
As @Nilgiri pointed out quote:

''Actually the current ambassador (Firat Sunel) is quite illustrative of this as he has studied India quite a lot (from the exchanges he has regularly with Indian history authors, cultural groups, prominent journalists/commentators, business leaders and so on). So that is very close to 10/10 selection done here by Erdogan admin under the circumstances.''


I dont understand what the problem is?

 

[Rooxbar]

Isnt this the way its done by all major countries?
Why should our country be different?
As @Nilgiri pointed out quote:

''Actually the current ambassador (Firat Sunel) is quite illustrative of this as he has studied India quite a lot (from the exchanges he has regularly with Indian history authors, cultural groups, prominent journalists/commentators, business leaders and so on). So that is very close to 10/10 selection done here by Erdogan admin under the circumstances.''


I dont understand what the problem is?

What I have in mind is quite different. Firat Sunel is not a product of an institutionalized tradition (that is he has gained that knowledge and expertise through his own enterprise). The problem with unicorns like that is that there's no process through which you're training new Firat Sunels or extracting their experience and learnings, i.e. it is not a sustainable process of guaranteed outcomes. You cannot leave this to chance that there might be people who are studying, e.g., Sinhalese intensively alongside their own study field in university and also are nerds for Sri Lankan literature and culture. You have Firat Sunel in India, but I know for a fact that even in Arabic speaking countries (I say even, because we have a lot of Imam Hatips which naturally should produce students with high arabic proficiency in the bulk [I know they don't, but at least we have bulk Arabic training, can't say the same about most other countries, hence the Arabic example]) we have represenatatives with a very rudimentary mastery of arabic, let alone the kind of charisma and charm that is the result of deep knowledge of a country.

How this can be made into a sustianbale process is through a think tank/academy which you may call "[Example Country] Studies Institute" where you employ several tutors of the major languages of the country (preferrably native speakers of that language), experts of culture and religion of that country, and also historians specializing in the history of that country. Then you have these specialists do both research but also teaching. You accept a few students every decade (I think 10 students per decade is more than enough; some of these students might not apply themselves and get horrible grades so you might want to have reserves; the way you attract both these students and also make sure some of the reserves might turn back and choose the institute instead of the path they've chosen after you rejected them, is a job guarantee in the instutitue or the diplomatic beaurocractic apparatus provided that they get a minimum level of grades). You first teach them the langauge for several years, along with light courses on history, culture and geography. I think this would be a six year program. Then you arrange exchange programs also for these students in the country of concern, etc. In a sense you prepare the top students of your institute as the next generation of the instructor/researchers in your academy/think tank, employing the rest in other capacities. This then forms a tradition and a cycle that is guaranteed to produce results, and the experience gleaned is not wasted away like in the personal example of Firat Sunel where there's no mechanism through which he's conveying his experience except for the fitful and informal mechanism of walking through the halls of ministry of foreign affairs (compared with the counter-example of products of institute writing reports, analysis, or having a teaching job in the institute after retirement, even in the garbs of high diplomat or ambassador).

P.S. This might seem like quite a utopic vision, but it's not; it's quite practical. The only problem is finding instructors for all those culture/religions and languages and the historians. Obviously you will not be able to find Turks for all of these. You hire from that country. So the new problem will be that the language of instruction for the first three/four years has to be English.

 

[Nilgiri]

What I have in mind is quite different. Firat Sunel is not a product of an institutionalized tradition (that is he has gained that knowledge and expertise through his own enterprise). The problem with unicorns like that is that there's no process through which you're training new Firat Sunels or extracting their experience and learnings, i.e. it is not a sustainable process of guaranteed outcomes. You cannot leave this to chance that there might be people who are studying, e.g., Sinhalese intensively alongside their own study field in university and also are nerds for Sri Lankan literature and culture. You have Firat Sunel in India, but I know for a fact that even in Arabic speaking countries (I say even, because we have a lot of Imam Hatips which naturally should produce students with high arabic proficiency in the bulk [I know they don't, but at least we have bulk Arabic training, can't say the same about most other countries, hence the Arabic example]) we have represenatatives with a very rudimentary mastery of arabic, let alone the kind of charisma and charm that is the result of deep knowledge of a country.

How this can be made into a sustianbale process is through a think tank/academy which you may call "[Example Country] Studies Institute" where you employ several tutors of the major languages of the country (preferrably native speakers of that language), experts of culture and religion of that country, and also historians specializing in the history of that country. Then you have these specialists do both research but also teaching. You accept a few students every decade (I think 10 students per decade is more than enough; some of these students might not apply themselves and get horrible grades so you might want to have reserves; the way you attract both these students and also make sure some of the reserves might turn back and choose the institute instead of the path they've chosen after you rejected them, is a job guarantee in the instutitue or the diplomatic beaurocractic apparatus provided that they get a minimum level of grades). You first teach them the langauge for several years, along with light courses on history, culture and geography. I think this would be a six year program. Then you arrange exchange programs also for these students in the country of concern, etc. In a sense you prepare the top students of your institute as the next generation of the instructor/researchers in your academy/think tank, employing the rest in other capacities. This then forms a tradition and a cycle that is guaranteed to produce results, and the experience gleaned is not wasted away like in the personal example of Firat Sunel where there's no mechanism through which he's conveying his experience except for the fitful and informal mechanism of walking through the halls of ministry of foreign affairs (compared with the counter-example of products of institute writing reports, analysis, or having a teaching job in the institute after retirement, even in the garbs of high diplomat or ambassador).

P.S. This might seem like quite a utopic vision, but it's not; it's quite practical. The only problem is finding instructors for all those culture/religions and languages and the historians. Obviously you will not be able to find Turks for all of these. You hire from that country. So the new problem will be that the language of instruction for the first three/four years has to be English.

Out of interest, has Turkiye made progress on doing this with China? It is very imperative one to do for any country in world wanting sound geopolitical investment in the future.

However the politics ultimately shapes out in large countries like China and India, there needs to be a bedrock approach developed by Turkiye (and any country actually) on all the things upstream to politics to greatly increase the maximum chance of positive consistent benefit.

It is an art for any society to not be too "fatalist" (while not being too idealistic at same time), i.e striking the balance...they must seize the best of their strength and wisdom and deploy it in best way as possible.

 

[Rooxbar]

Out of interest, has Turkiye made progress on doing this with China? It is very imperative one to do for any country in world wanting sound geopolitical investment in the future.

However the politics ultimately shapes out in large countries like China and India, there needs to be a bedrock approach developed by Turkiye (and any country actually) on all the things upstream to politics to greatly increase the maximum chance of positive consistent benefit.

It is an art for any society to not be too "fatalist" (while not being too idealistic at same time), i.e striking the balance...they must seize the best of their strength and wisdom and deploy it in best way as possible.

Funnily enough an institute very similar to what I propose exists already for China Studies (http://www.confucius.boun.edu.tr/?page_id=2&lang=en) but it's a one-of-a-kind joint enterprise of Boğaziçi University and Shanghai University, without any institutional relations with the foreign affairs ministry (which is only to be expected as the program is a part of international "Confucius Institutes" initiative of Hanban (the Office of Chinese Language Council International), ergo the Chinese government. I have a friend who attended Mandarin classes there, and her assessment of the whole project was negative as the setting and prospects were described as quite ill-considered overall; which is understandable for a project with limited goals and backing. The most prominent Turkish member is Ayşe Selçuk Esenbel, who is a professor of Japanese and far east history. She is not used in any capacity in foreign affairs apparatus.

Most diplomatic missions in Turkey are based on the model of rotating chairs; i.e. there is a limited pool of top diplomats that the ruling party trusts (they have been famously bureaucrat-skeptic in the past, although the situation is better now) and these same people rotate around the world. Our China ambassador is an experienced diplomat (has been on missions to France and Russia) and the relations are going well enough, new consulates being established lately in several major cities.

There's an argument to be made against the ideal profile I paint of a diplomat in my post, and specifically against such a profile occupying the top diplomat job, as one can argue managing the subordinates in the embassy and also engaging top politicians of a foreign country requires diplomatic experience and a generic political savviness rather than being able to speak the language and being a specialist of that particular country instead. Against this, I'd argue that you can get the best of the both worlds even for the top diplomats, at least for several major countries. Our China ambassador incidentally, depsite being a quite well-educated diplomat, speaks a broken English, let alone Mandarin. His social media presence and engagement on Twitter and Weibo is almost non-existent. But assessing the general standing of human capital development and social dynamism of our society, he's someone we could do worse than, for sure.

What I propose is, generally speaking, beyond the acumen of any prospective administration in Turkey regardless of party affiliation.